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incorrectbatfam · 10 months

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I h3ad cannon athat all the batfam members have had/are still in their emo/goth phases.

Example:

Bruce dressed as a bat and punches criminals at night (I also head cannon that he listens to the rolling stones and MCR)

Anyways thoughts?

Also what were the other batfam members emo/goth phases like?

Dick: He was hella neurotic in his late Robin/early Nightwing days. That plus his mullet and guitar tells me he probably tried to live out of a used van he bought for $700 after a fight with Bruce only to come home a week later when someone knocked on his window.

Jason: He's the theater/classic lit goth. When he was younger he would read by the glow of a candelabra even though the lights work perfectly fine. Post-resurrection, he graduates to the biker anarchist who has no problem launching a molotov at a CEO's mansion.

Tim: He's from the 90s. He's sitting in that Y2K grunge-emo-punk gray area where his playlist is a mix of the Clash, Nirvana, and Green Day. He's coloring his hair with Kool-Aid, playing with makeup, ripping his own clothes, and talking about new songs on AOL.

Damian: He's aiming for dark academia, but that's hard to pull off if you know what American schools look like. He annotates the margins of his books with notes he thinks are insightful but are actually just basic observations. Also he listens to Imagine Dragons.

Duke: This kid isn't emo or goth, he is a punk through and through. Sassing the cops? Jumping off a bridge? Leading a ragtag vigilante team? If he wanted to, I bet he can pull off a leather jacket with some homemade spikes while blasting Bad Brains and Death.

Cullen: Canonically, he watches anime and Supernatural, and I've made a lot of Tumblr references with him. He's definitely your quintessential 2010s emo nerd—Black Parade, fandoms, the whole shabang. He also definitely followed Dan and Phil.

Stephanie: She strikes me as the early 2000s pop-punker—think MySpace and Avril Lavigne. She probably had a Not Like Other Girls phase that she quickly grew out of. I can see her cutting posters out of magazines and sneaking her MP3 under an oversized hoodie.

Cassandra: She canonically listens to Killswitch Engage, so I like to imagine what she was like as a baby metalhead. Maybe she thrifted a Pantera shirt and chopped her hair with safety scissors. And at concerts she's absolutely up front when the wall of death happens.

Barbara: I think she dabbled in a little bit of everything without ever outwardly expressing it. Her playlist is all over the board, from softer rock to screamo. She also experimented with makeup a little, like black lipstick, and is more involved in the activism side of things.

Harper: She's definitely industrial punk with a huge emphasis on the DIY aspect of the subculture. She strings soda tabs into chains, turns old screws into boot spikes, and even learned to give herself tattoos. She also absolutely has a drawer full of patch pants.

Carrie: She's a TikTok e-girl, leaning into the pinks and purples along with black and white. She turns fishnet leggings into gloves and has a bunch of animal ear headbands. She also listens to Melanie Martinez and Tame Impala regardless of if they count as alternative.

Kate: Queer people play a huge role in the punk scene and vice versa. I can absolutely see Kate jamming out to an early Pansy Division track or searching places like Bandcamp to support smaller indie artists. Also she has a jacket that says "Nazi punks fuck off."

Alfred: Before punk and its subgenres, Alfred was canonically a delinquent and in that day, delinquency meant gelled-up hair and moving like Elvis. The hair didn't work out for him, but he was able to catch one of the first shows Buddy Holly played in London.

Selina: Alt cultures are based on not having much and working with what you got. Selina would use the five-finger discount at big-box stores and save her money to support small businesses. She also went around listening to free local rock shows on Fridays.

Bruce: He listened to the Rolling Stones before, but his first real intro to the scene was a handmade zine he found on the floor at school. From there, he explored more underground artists and took up journaling as a way to vent his feelings. And then: Batman.

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shapelytimber · 6 months

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LIBERTINE !

Fuck the rushed dogshit ending, Wee John and Izzy continued to do drag together, sailing on the revenge from town to town. Don't miss their new "libertine" show !!

[PRINT] - [COMMISSIONS]

Ok after more than a week of reflexion, and a chat with my evil advisor @quijicroix (who is a genius)... Izzy Hands should have sang "libertine" by mylène farmer instead of la fucking vie en rose. Why ? 1) mylène farmer is a very famous french queer artist 2) her songs (especially libertine) are used all the time in drag shows in france 3) la vie en rose as taken other the years a very bougie parisian conotation, so to have a PIRATE sing it ?? Wtf ? 4) she often performed with drag queens on stage- and I could go on.

But all I have to say is, please please please if you've never heard it or seen the clip- Go watch it right now ! It's so fucking good !!! (cw nudity and a bit of blood. Also old ass guns)

Wee john gets to be cunt and play the vilain, Izzy (who is more of a drag king) gets to play the gender protag <3 the show of course include a choreographed fight scene at the end

Process + other famous french songs rec vvv

VERY rough colors

Sketch

And just to be petty, here are other famous french songs that would have been way better than la vie en rose :

- Le bien qui fait mal (Mozart l'opera rock) ("I have joy in pain, I get drunk on this poison until I loose my sanity". The most izzy ass song you can get, it's horny kinky angsty BDSM themed song what more do you want ? Ok to be fair it's more s1 Izzy, but still !)

- Mourir sur scène (Dalida) ("I want to die on stage". well it's less a love song and more foreshadowing for the end, but if Izzy's death had been better written, less rushed, or happenned in an hypothetical s3 (I really don't think they'll have one tho-), it would have been so good.)

- Les demons de minuit (Images) (sillier for sure, but horny and iconic. Alas it's very het)

My final note on this will be, why french ?? Because Abba Lay all your love on me or the winner takes it all would have been so fucking good-

PS : I did most of the rendering very tired and a bit drunk after a party hfrifgruigfrui I had so much to correct after that what a nightmare

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project-sekai-facts · 5 months

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idk if this has its own comprehensive post on here or not but can you explain in depth how rui is gay coded

yeah okay

i think what you'll see people bring up most often is the fact that he has his right ear pierced (see above). incredibly brief queer history lesson for anyone who is unaware: back in the 70s & 80s when it still illegal or otherwise heavily looked down on to be gay, wearing a single earring in your right ear became a non-verbal identifier amongst gay men in America. As far as I'm aware, identifiers did actually vary between areas, but it became far more publicly known that the right ear was the gay ear and the left ear was the straight ear. Even today when the stigma has worn away a decent amount, you still hear people bring up the term "gay ear" and the fact that the right ear is the gay ear is fairly common knowledge. This is also a known thing outside america, i'm not sure how far the spread is outside america and other english-speaking countries but it is definitely known in a fair amount of places (also it should be noted that a right ear piercing can have different meanings in different cultures that predate this meaning, and nowadays people are more likely to get whatever ear pierced they want regardless of sexuality).

obviously anyone can have any ear pierced that they want but things work a bit differently with character design. the only other MCs who regularly wear earrings are An (left ear) and Akito (both). For both of them, this is definitely done to make them seem more cool, which makes sense given they're in the street music scene and following the fashions. As for NPCs there's Nagi (left), Arata, Ken, Tatsuya, Iori, Saku, and Yuuka (all both), which again is probably just to fit the fashion of those characters. Okay, Yuuka just has regular old earrings but as for the others you've got street and punk rock styles which both incorporate piercings as a big part of the style (especially with Saku's punk look).

so all that considered, Rui's earring just sticks out, I guess? it's not really a fashion thing, it's pretty plain and just kinda there, and very conveniently happens to exactly match up with an old way of signaling in the gay community instead of being in his left ear which is the far more common ear for guys to get pierced if they only have one earring. also he almost always only has the one piercing in his right ear in trained cards, the only exceptions being his cheer squad (earrings in both ears) and his canary card (three piercings but still in his right ear).

like i said though, it doesn't have to mean anything but talking from the perspective of character design, sometimes if you want to communicate something about a character then you put it in there.

building off of that, very stereotype-y but his choreo is notably quite.. flamboyant, should I say, compared to the other characters, even shizuku and haruka's more elegant styles. honestly just watch the clip this is so hard to explain. anyway in the process of writing this i found out that his mocap artist lists in his professional profile that one of his specialities is dancing for both masculine and feminine roles, so I get the feeling that there was a reason they cast this person specifically instead of one of the other male artists at the company, and then there was the decision to even have him dance like that in the first place. this doesn't have to mean anything at all and as i said leans very far on stereotypes which is something that i'm not a huge fan of but you do still sometimes have to consider things like this even when talking about modern media.

this one again is more of a matter of perspective. Rui has a few interactions with Tsukasa that could very definitely be read as flirting. it's kinda ambiguous though, which does make sense given the type of game this is; they never really make anything clear so that people who are fans of a pairing can enjoy the teasing and people who don't like it can simply move on. first thing that comes to mind would be the part where he invites Tsukasa to his house in wonder halloween (above), mainly because his L2D uses his smile expression that has a blush with it and that was a choice that someone on the L2D team had to make but didn't have to - they could've easily just kept his usual teasing expression he had at the start of the interaction there was no need to change it.

There's a couple other interactions but this is probably the most obvious outside of the incredibly shameless shiptease of Rui volunteering himself to play Juliet so Tsukasa could rehearse the proposal scene of his R&J adaptation despite the fact that Nene was in the room in Kamikou Festival!.

(TL by pjsekai eng)

there's also that 1koma that I posted about a while ago. you know, the one where he asks for people to call him the "modern day Hiraga Gennai"? Hiraga Gennai as in the 18th century Japanese inventor who was also gay and wrote multiple works about it. The whole joke of the 1koma is that Rui wants to be known as the modern equivalent of a gay scientist and Tsukasa questions if he really wants to be called that.

The 1komas are played for jokes though, and especially the original ones are quite hard to call canon due to some of the scenarios and character interactions not making sense. But then again, someone on the writing team decided to write a gay joke around Rui for whatever reason that may be and it got passed by higher ups and put in the game (or, 3 versions of the game. the joke didn't make it to EN due to Gennai not being very known amongst the audience).

the only other thing i can think of (and arguably like, the biggest bit of evidence for this theory (?)) is that he doesn't really show any interest in women.

First off, the Valentine's Day 2021 vlive. Quick note that in Japan, Valentine's is traditionally a holiday for girls to give chocolates to boys (while white day is the reverse). You can give platonic valentines too, which is what happens in-game... for the most part.

Those chocolates Rui got could easily just be platonic chocolates from other students, but then you have a few factors to filter in. 1) this is very early into the game, back when his only friends were WxS and Mizuki and 2) Those chocolates aren't from WxS, since Emu and Nene give the boys sweets offscreen after the vlive, and Tsukasa is on the receiving end for this holiday. Of course, one box could be friend chocolates from Mizuki, but that leaves more chocolate boxes than friends to give him chocolates.

Immediately after this, Tsukasa gets jealous that Rui got chocolates and tries to brag that he got some too, before saying too much and revealing he got friendzoned by multiple girls, basically confirming that Rui's chocolates were given with romantic intent. I guess you could say that these were chocolates given out to everyone in 2-B, but then why would they leave it anonymously in his locker? Tsukasa's classmates just gave them out to everyone in-person. The only reason I could think of is that people don't want to associate with him, which is canon, but if that's the case then why even bother. I dunno. This is almost word-for-word from that post I made about the in-universe attractiveness of every character so sorry I made you sit through that again.

Getting back on track, Rui seems very neutral about the fact he got given multiple boxes of what was likely confession chocolate. He just briefly mentions that he forgot the holiday was even happening until he found chocolates and then never brings this up again. I think it's worth comparing his reactions to Tsukasa, who seems to care very much about his abilities (or, lack thereof) to attract women. Obviously Tsukasa is the big reactions/brag about a lot of things guy, but Rui does not really seem to care about the fact that multiple women find him attractive.

Second sub-point: Shizuku. Shizuku can be considered as the most attractive character in-universe given the sheer amount of characters that have been shown to be attracted to her or at least comment on her looks (currently at least 8 MCs and a few named side characters). Admittedly none of those MCs are male, but it isn't like it's impossible for people to be attracted to the opposite gender in this game, like we just established that Tsukasa says he's interested in women, so the point still stands.

(TL from Tsukasa's #3 fan on YT)

Specifically I would like to point out a scene in A Once-In-A-Lifetime Pandemonium, when the 2-B trio first meet the Miyajo 2nd years. The three of them immediately recognise Shizuku and Airi and then Ibuki describes Mafuyu as "a beauty". Shizuku gives them her idol smile which in their POV has the same sparkles that often show up when characters are attracted to another character (like how Haruka has this effect on Minori and Kohane, and An has this effect on Kohane). Like it's very, very obvious that Rui's friends are attracted to Shizuku and the other girls and they're pretty surprised that he's hanging around with them.

But Rui never acts like this around Shizuku at all, nor does he ever even address the fact that she's good looking. He doesn't even bring it up in their earlier interactions, when a lot of other characters (e.g: Emu, Ena, and Mizuki) commented on her looks almost immediately after meeting her (they did first meet in a pretty stressful situation if you want to argue that, but it still stands that he's never been attracted to her).

at the end of the day i think you could definitely make a case for it. like it's harder to make a solid argument in comparison to say, Kohane, An, or Minori who are outright attracted to other girls, but there's definitely some more subtle hints and stuff to work with still and it was actually quite fun to compile them (i took the in-depth part to heart as always sorry anon).

#this isn't meant to invalidate anyone's ships or HCs or whatnot like do whatever you want #do whatever you want with this post it's just for fun.#asks #theory #? i guess??#rui kamishiro

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stjohnstarling · 5 months

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As is often the case with mass platform actions against creators, who is and isn’t being removed from Patreon is inconsistent and confusing for creators. “When I woke up to this the other morning I got dragged into full panic attack mode and checked my email and Patreon account religiously,” Fang, a Patreon creator who wasn’t banned despite making content similar to what lots of other banned creators make—cute baby furries, dressed in diapers and baby clothing—told me. “As I'm writing this, the bans aren't over. Several other creators who we thought were safe have gotten hit. We don't know where it will end or how to protect ourselves.” Patreon revenue pays his rent, Fang said, and if it were to be cut off suddenly, he wouldn’t know what would happen to his wife and family who depend on his income. “Being a creator is my job, and right now it feels like I could get fired for walking into work wearing the wrong color shirt one day.”

This is completely insidious of Patreon. ABDL furries are a group of people almost perfectly chosen to be as socially unacceptable to defend as possible, and to seem ridiculous to the average person. Don’t let yourself get tricked by that. Everyone, especially queer artists and writers who rely on Patreon for income, should be concerned about this. This kind of thing will never ever start with the people you like.

#Original post

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biblicallyaccurateslut · 4 months

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Sooo, I just read a post saying that gaylors are disgusting because they want to force Taylor out of the closet?? And that NYT should not have posted that article???

Let me get something clear, if you are closeted, you try and hide your queernes as much as you can. You dont go around singing about your agumentative, antithetical dream girl and wearing someone like a necklace. You dont talk about hairpin drops. You dont dress yourself in the bi pride flag colors and sing about wanting boys and girls. Is not something you do if you are closeted.

Forcing someone out of the closet is disgunting, thats for sure, the thing were this person is wrong is that we are not trying to force Taylor out of the closet. Forcing her would be something she does not agree on but since she has been putting all the queercoding and queer slang in her music (out there to listen and analize by everyone) and decide to do some things queer people use to identify each other and send signals in public, aware she is being watched by the whole world, I would argue that the talking about her probably being queer is consented by her.

Also, saying she is in a closet would mean she is secretive about it and trying to pass as straight, which I think I gave you enough examples as to why she is not secretive about it. Is out there to see. And because is out there to see, it is okay to talk about it. She put it out there. The NYT only talked about queercoding in her music, which is completely fine to talk to. She wrote that music and she released it. She filmed that videos. Chose that words. She is in control and she decided to leave hairpin drops as often as she could. The NYT was not outing her or anything, it was just doing a reading of a piece of art using certain simbology, that happens to be the queer one. And if we think about how the art and the artist are connected, is fair enough to wonder if she could be attracted to woman. She hints at it in her music!

#gaylor #taylor swift #queer #gaylor swift #eras tour #swiftgron #the eras tour #again a lottle bit of a rant #i feel like im repeating myself in all my post #but whatever #i will say it as many times as i have to

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will-pilled · 5 days

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Montague

Possibly triggering stuff? Self harm, CA, SA.

Montague personality (summary, due to limited information):

Montague is controlling, as is evident. He comes off as very calm and collected, and seems like a rather calculating and "pulling the strings" sort of man. Can be very aggressive. Headcanons:

He/him cis man - Unlabled but prefers masculine leaning/androgynous individuals. (British cig) It's more aesthetics he's attracted to.

He is not a huge animal person, but Oscar was okay when he was around I guess..

Fashionista and artist, designs his outfits.

Fave colors are blue, white, black, blue-gray, and silver.

Knows a lot about rocks and crystals, keeps it to himself though because he doesn't want to look dorky.

He is very French, and swears in French often as well as muttering to himself and breaking into French speaking when flustered or overwhelmed.

Loves sweet and salty deserts as well as very savory food.

Really likes knives. They're neat.

He isn't a good man. He isn't even an anti hero. But he is very easy to feel bad for.

Not a fan of children, not at all.

Kind of a sarcastic ass hole. Not kind of, a huge one. Dry humor and sarcasm. *Blank stare* "Are you stupid?"

Skin care and hygiene freak, takes pride in how he looks.

The Society was the closest he had to friends, so when they all ditched each other he became bitter as FUCK.

He does want a romantic relationship BUT he also terrified of being close to someone. He doesn't want to risk someone being in control of him or being rejected or left. he has a VERY intense "leave people before they can leave me" mentality, but isn't really aware of it.

Borderline Personality Disorder - Is extremely convinced there is nothing wrong with him which leads him to be very "anti recovery," and makes him indulge a lot in unhealthy habits and actions. Has some narcissistic traits but not enough to have Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

He *appears* calm and collected, but the moment he is sure he is alone he may fall into a hole-in-wall-punching fit of rage. Him breaking things is not uncommon. He takes his anger out on objects the most. He wants to fill the hole in his heart with objects and power. He chases the temporary highs of stealing, the chase, being in control of someone, and even perhaps drugs if he is bored enough. He only smokes in front of others, as he avoids doing most others in front of people due to more noticeable effects. He feels rather empty.

Intense need for control over himself and others, and in turn hates losing his shit. He HATES when things don't go his way for this reason as well, and his stealing also goes into this as he wants to control items and where they are.

A bit of a stalker, but not too bad. Stalking socials is his biggest thing.

(Potentially triggering? Self harm.) He did the eye scar to himself. No cool backstory or funny accidents. He did it to himself to look the way HE wanted to look. To control how he looks and what happens to his body. He never talks about how he got it, but loves it. Likely has other scars as well in intricate patterns and pictures. Doesn't really do it anymore because he honestly got bored of it. Not because he got better in any sense of the phrase.

(!CA, SA!)

Montague grew up with a very emotionally abusive and controlling father (Montague is sadly repeating the cycle it seems). He wasn't hit much by his dad, but was often picked on by peers for his queerness and being "girly." which caused his aggressiveness, though since he can do "whatever he wants" he is more open about it now. Not really "price flags everywhere" kind of open (though ngl I could see Meowscles being like that fucking bi and transgender ass cat) but more of a "clear closet"/"Is he... Y'know?" kinda open. He doesn't care for either parent much, they were both distant and let money raise him so he doesn't have much of an attachment to either of them. He has no feelings for them and when he came to the island he felt little to no grief at losing his old life other than his money and power.

He was assaulted when he was a young adult for a period of time by an employer, who had a great deal of influence and control. This is also where Montague's "I want influence and power" mindset comes from as well, so he will NEVER be at someone else's mercy again. He feels anger over it. He is no "perfect victim."

#montague hcs for twitter #I have a little community on there now :3 #montague #fortnite #montague fortnite #fortnite montague #tw sa #tw child abuse #cw queerphobia

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bylertruther · 1 year

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can i be honest for a second? i think it's weird how quickly and avidly a lot of people in this fandom turn down the idea that will is gnc, even though he... literally is? lol.

will is described in canon as being sweet, sensitive, gentle, highly empathetic, emotional, soft-spoken, and artistic. these traits are not inherently gendered, but instead traditionally stereotyped to be "feminine," especially within the era that this show is set. they're likely the main reason why everyone assumes he's gay to begin with.

in the st pitch he's described as wearing colorful clothes, and in the show joyce tells us that other kids are mean, laugh at him, and make fun of him for them, right before she calls him sensitive and says that lonnie used to call him queer, thus linking this all together and driving the point home to hopper.

we also know that people of all age groups—his peers, teenagers, and even adults—call him all sorts of gay slurs, some of which are aimed at and describing feminine, androgynous, or cross-dressing homosexual men—aka, "fairy."

everyone in hawkins wasn't calling will gay and making his life difficult because he did anything with other boys. they did this because he never fit the societal expectation for how a boy "should" act—especially not at the height of the aids crisis in reagan's midwestern america, might i remind you—which, to them, meant he had to be gay.

it's him not conforming to the "acceptable" or expected gender presentation for boys that damns him. will is visibly gay by their standards. will is gender nonconforming in the context within which he exists, and even now because the aforementioned traits are still stereotyped as being "feminine" and considered aspects of male gender nonconformity. we know better now than to assume a man is gay because he's nice and soft-spoken, but we cannot erase the context of the show, the canon material it presents, or the real homophobia of that era that still exists today.

it's also a big part of will's character, because it further proves that he doesn't have a chance of conforming even if he would ever want to, because he would have to change everything about himself in order to do so. it wouldn't be as simple as changing his clothes or picking up a new hobby. he'd have to harden himself, to become tougher, to not feel as much as he does. and that's just not will. will is sweet, gentle, and sensitive—no matter what consequences it all brings. he can't change and he hasn't ever expressed any interest in doing so. literally not even life-altering trauma was able to take that from him. it's just who will is.

if you erase that HUGE part of his character, literally the second thing we're taught about him in the first fifteen minutes of 1x01, then you're erasing a big part of his lore, characterization, motives, and the representation he provides to those with similar experiences.

like... this isn't offensive characterization / writing. we've seen will on our screen for years now—we know he's not a one-dimensional stereotype, and that he's obviously more than the rumors that circulate about him. accepting what the duffers put forth doesn't diminish anything about him, and this... aversion people have to accepting that makes other gay people who have shared a similar experience as will feel othered in a community where they're supposed to feel welcome in.

this is something that happens to millions of people around the globe. this is an important story and an important character that have both been treated with extreme care by the writers and the actor that plays him. why would you want to erase any of that? what issue do you have with gay people like will? because it says a lot more about you than it does him or the duffers.

#will byers #byler #mine #will #i'm tired of acting like canon isn't real lol #these gay people exist. they are not 'bad representation' or members of the community you should shun. will IS your gnc king.

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twopoppies · 2 years

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I usually don't comment on stuff like this, because I don't make a habit of pissing on people's parades, but some of the recent things people are using as "proof" (of bbg ending, of Larry communicating with us, etc) are really wild stretches.

And, I usually wouldn't let it bother me; I understand that people (especially newer larries) are just having fun. But, as someone who's been here for a long time and who was part of the fandom when "proof" really meant concrete, vetted, and consistent evidence, I think people are unaware of how creating, spreading, and encouraging these unsubstantiated stretches and theories only support the extremely damaging stereotype that larries are unhinged and that we can (and will) make a connection out of anything, if it suits our narrative. (Which is, literally, what hets and shippers do, so yeah, forgive me if I don't want to be lumped in with that crowd.)

When we talk about Larry signaling (through clothing, warnings, selfies, the bears, etc), I think it's really, really important to remember the context in which those things happened.

They were both banging on the glass closet and seemingly seeding a potential coming out. They were at the height of their 'enemies' narrative and banned from being seen interacting, even while they were living out of each other's pockets. They were restricted by extremely abusive public identities (homophobe and serial womanizer) and contract clauses. They were making music and money for oppressive management and labels, none of which was directly contributing to or even hinting at potential personal career growth outside One Direction. They were signaling not only because it's all they had in terms of connecting with their community, but as an act of extreme rebellion and as a means of winning over even an inch of personal freedom and self-expression. (Remember, Niall wasn't even allowed to keep his natural hair color.)

And, while yes, Harry and Louis are still heavily closeted and being made to participate in (especially in Louis' case) extremely vile and abusive stunts, the context, in terms of their need to be seen (whether it be as their own people, queer people, or as a couple), has actually changed. In terms of self-expression, they're both making music that resonates with their creative identities, that they have some level of control over, and that contribute to them, personally, as individual artists. This means they actually have a personal stake in whether or not their projects do well because its a direct indicator of whether they get to continue making music that they love. Taking that into consideration, its unlikely that they want to overshadow the soul of those projects by slipping in all these little clues about their relationship into their promo. They’ve also (thanks mostly to the fans) found other ways of connecting to the queer community (which is an entirely different objective from wanting people to know about their relationship, specifically.)

To be really honest, I think they’ve actually made a collective decision to work harder to protect the privacy of their relationship, even behind the scenes, for many reasons. (Harris Reed’s recent interview, where he mentioned not really knowing Harry all that well, but alluded to leaving space for his queerness is what swayed me the most.) Being older, and having a lot more at stake (personally and professionally), makes me think they’re now (maybe in the last four or so years) very, very selective about who they share this part of their life with, one, because they each have a lot more to lose now if they’re outed, but also because their relationship is their top priority, and as Harry has said (and no doubt learned), a relationship has never benefitted from being made public (and we have to remember that even “within the confines of the industry” is still very, very “public”).

But, I digress. My point is, they've been together for twelve years, they've written hundreds upon hundreds of love songs to each other, they have their love story tattooed all over their skin. I get if you, individually, need to read into every little clue to prove to yourself they're still together, but don’t confuse that with them needing us to know it.

Again, I'm not saying this to piss on anyone's parade. I love a Larry proof to death and god knows I believe in the real ones with my whole chest (Still the One still gives me chills, Princess Park is fucking perfection, ‘waiting to wrap your legs around me' and ‘tired eyes are the death of me’ are tattooed on my heart). What I'm saying is people need to take context into consideration to keep from devaluing and trivializing actual, solid, vetted Larry proof and signaling because the only people and reputations these stretches and theories are hurting are Larries’.

Anon, if I wasn’t already married, I would marry you. THANK YOU.

#fandom dynamics #for newbies #I was going to add some thoughts #but really you made such good points #I don’t even want to dilute it

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mooncakescomic · 2 months

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Wow! Hi! Announcement about MOONCAKES (that might be new to some)

Hi guys! Wendy here.

It's been a few years-- I actually logged back onto tumblr to fix the stupid AI settings to avoid this blog getting scraped, specifically with this as Mooncakes started as a webcomic and is now a published graphic novel under copyright (please update your blog settings to avoid your own blog getting scraped)

That's right! I thought that since we had published as a book back in 2019, people would stop following this blog, but looking at the notifications, people are still landing here.

So this is to say that Mooncakes is a graphic novel that you can buy wherever books are sold (might I suggest your local indie) and we have several different editions, including a special edition hardcover and a Spanish edition. To finish reading what happens to Nova and Tam that ended at Chapter 6 here, please get the book! If you don't wanna buy it, please support your local library and request it or check it out there!

You can find me over on instagram @artofwendyxu and on my website. I sell Procreate brushes and short fantasy comics on my ko-fi , and these days I'm a full time comics artist with MOONCAKES out from Oni Press, TIDESONG and INFINITY PARTICLE from HarperCollins Quilltree, and more to come, all available wherever books are sold and at your local library.

You can find Suzanne over on her website (she isn't on social media much these days). She's written for Star Wars and short fiction magazines, with a novel in the works!

Joamette, our letterer, is also the EIC and publisher over at Power and Magic Press, for more comics about queer witches and fantasy of color-- books also available for sale and at your libraries.

Thank you so much for your support, and I hope you'll continue to follow us on our journeys.

#mooncakes #comics

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catbountry · 8 months

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It has been 22 years since 9/11; I was 15 years old in second period art class when a kid, who'd been running down the hallway, opened the door and announced a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and then ran off down the hall, leaving everyone confused. The principal advised teachers not to turn on televisions for us when this was happening, leaving us in further confusion as he tried, feebly, to carry out the rest of the day. We were dismissed before lunch, before fourth period ended.

There are people who are able to legally drink that weren't born yet when this happened and let me tell you, the actual event was fucked up but what happened afterwards, the decisions made in the wake of this fucking event, are a big reason why everything is so fucked up now.

I remember the color-coded terror threat chart, explained by Tom DeLay, who would become a minor internet meme just because of a weird photo of his face. I remember the phrase "known unknowns" in regards to justifying the invasion of Iraq. The "yellow cake" uranium. Being assured that there were weapons of mass destruction. Shock and awe. Bush in a flight suit in front of that "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" sign. The 2000's was the decade of neo-conservatism and 9/11 was a glorious and golden opportunity to have what America had lost with the fall of the Soviet Union; an ideological enemy that hated us because of how great we were. A perfect vessel to pump patriotic sentiment into the public. And it worked... kind of. Not so much for us younger people, those of us who were teenagers or in our 20's. You have to understand that we were at a point where Jon Stewart, the host of the Daily Show, was considered to be some sort of beacon of truth. We would rather get our news from a satirical news program than the actual news, because Stewart would at least recognize the absurdity of it all. A lot of artists did. Green Day's American Idiot is considered to be their most important album and the whole thing was a protest album. I've always had a soft spot for Radiohead's Hail to the Thief for the same reason. Counterculture was dark and bitter and cynical and brooding, and often incredibly edgy, flying directly in the face of the propaganda about how great America was. Counterculture was more queer, more atheist, dressed in black and online, making memes about 9/11. 9/11, this day that was supposed to be symbolic of the nation's greatest modern-day tragedy since the assassination of John F. Kennedy or the bombing of Pearl Harbor, was being photoshopped to make it look like Hulk Hogan was taking down the Twin Towers through sick wrestling moves. 4chan seems to have since been infected with reactionary brainworms over the course of the 2010's, but in the 2000's, counterculture wasn't conservative. It was making conservatives upset. We saw destruction and mass human death played on repeat over and over and we grew numb to it. Desensitized. We saw the obvious emotional ploy that was being used as an excuse to inflict even more violence and oppression on people on the other side of the globe. We reveled in shock sites, in edgy jokes, in transgression, in scaring the normies.

The young men who fall into the alt-right rabbit hole, who might not even be old enough to remember 9/11... I can't help but wonder what they think of it. Because they still want to be edgelords, but now to own the libs. To work in service of the very same people that we were trying to piss off 20 years ago. Trump spoke on 9/11 about how now, the Trump Tower, which had once been the tallest building in Manhattan, was now back to being the tallest building in Manhattan. He's a completely different breed from Bush, Cheney and company. Completely self-interested. Not even bothering with the pretext of things like conviction or truth. Truthiness incarnate. Embrace it. Feel it. Be it.

I think back to a few years ago, I posted a doge meme with the child doge in front of the Twin Towers, with a joke about how great the future was going to be in the coming decade. I had a teenager try and educate me on how insensitive this was. They hadn't even been born yet and I snapped at them that the meme was a real sentiment, that all of us who were old enough to remember essentially watched our futures explode on television, over and over, in a fireball of jet fuel.

This went stream of consciousness again. It always does. It's hard to summarize 9/11 and its aftermath in a cohesive way because we're still living in the shadow of it. COVID-19 is now the big historical event that traumatized us all that we will have to reckon with for decades to come, and how it affected young people growing up at the time. The new scar on our collective psyche. But 9/11 will continue to be that formative scar. Before that for me, it was Columbine, but only because the aftermath did directly affect me. Before that? Princess Diana's death, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the O.J. Simpson trial, and of all of those, the bombing was perhaps the most actually impactful on us. Before 9/11, it was the largest terrorist attack on the United States, carried out by a far-right racist retaliating against the FBI firebombing a compound because a pedophile cult leader with a bunch of guns refused to give up and used his child brides as human shields. That'd be Waco, by the way.

There was another bombing of the World Trade Center that happened in 1993. It was much smaller, using a bomb inside a van in a parking lot underneath; it's the reason Biggie rapped about "blowing up like the World Trade." Osama bin Laden was also behind that one but that wouldn't be fully realized by us until 1996. It only killed six people. It was considered a failed attempt; it was supposed to take down the entire North Tower. It didn't come out of nowhere. The CIA knew that this was in motion since Clinton was in office, and this ball got rolling because of training the United States offered to resistance fighters in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 80's. I remember the shock I felt first seeing that photo of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam Hussein's hand, knowing about the Gulf War and living through the War in Iraq. All these puzzle pieces are scattered on the floor and my brain is making connections between all of them as I try and fit them together. I'm looping red string around push pins and asking who Pepe Silvia is, except it's not a conspiracy, it's just me trying to fully grasp this event that happened in my lifetime, before I was an adult but after I'd started paying attention to the news regularly and had developed an interest in politics. Just as I was forming my own political beliefs. 9/11 and its aftermath has informed so much of who I am politically, and what my values are. George W. Bush is my Nixon, and yet, somehow, things got so much more cartoonishly worse as I entered my 30's that I was in denial about it until COVID. Trump's presidency felt like a clown show. How on earth was I supposed to take this man seriously? This motherfucker made the neoconservatives appear restrained and reasonable by comparison, and those motherfuckers are actual war criminals.

I can only really tell people who are too young to remember what this era was like what it was like. It's hard to explain if you weren't there in that moment. We're seeing Y2K nostalgia become a thing, which fits, because of the 20 year minimum big nostalgia cycle, as those whose childhood was 20 years ago are now young adults. And some of those adults were born after 9/11. They never knew the world before it. I knew, but I was a child and couldn't really fully grasp it. The 90's felt very distinct from the 2000's, with it's very open cynicism and even nihilism in the very first years of a society with no Soviet Union.

If only we knew how bad things really would become.

#not fan fiction

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cursed-man-prayers · 1 year

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In my experience, Gaylors are often misunderstood as being solely concerned with Taylor's potential past relationships. Someone, swifitie or not, will see a post about VS fashion shows, Dianna's tattoo, or kissgate, and then assume that that's what being a gaylor is: making inferences based solely on photos, PR, and vibes. But there's so much more to it than that.

Being a gaylor is about appreciating Taylor Swift's lyricism, her ability to wrap the truth in layers of poeticism, the way she hides in plain sight. Being a gaylor has taught me so much about sapphic history. Because of Taylor, I've learned more about Emily Dickinson, Sappho, and queer literature in general. I've heard my experiences as a sapphic represented in songs like gold rush, illicit affairs, Call It What You Want, Out of the Woods, and in so many of her songs.

There's also the overt way Taylor has aligned herself with Pride and queer artists. From singing Delicate at every Pride event she's performed at, to choosing openers for tour who are known for being queer, Taylor has intentionally positioned herself as someone who cares about LGBTQ+ people and rights. She used the YNTCD music video to promote the Equality Act. She wore a bracelet with bi flag colors that said "proud." She said "gay pride...makes me, me." Regardless of how she identifies, it's clear that she doesn't mind people saying she is or might be queer. If she did, there would be more than vague post combating the rumors. She said Lavender Haze was about dodging "weird rumors," and those rumors were the ones fueled by heteronormativity and misogyny, not queer people seeing ourselves and our history represented in her music.

When I learned about gaylorism a couple of years ago, I thought "wow, this is a really interesting way to look at her music." Listening to Taylor Swift and hearing queerness isn't invasive speculation. It's the natural outcome of what Taylor herself writes, what she willingly puts out into the public to be listened to and dissected and pulled apart for the sake of finding meaning.

Taylor Swift has never said the words "I'm straight." Despite many opportunities, especially during the Lover Era, to say "as a straight woman, I support...(the Equality Act, LGBTQ rights, etc)," she never did. She has been vague, and she has been vague on purpose.

I've been feeling weird about being in this community the last few days. With the YouTube video that's been making the rounds (which, as I've said, is by a Youtuber whose videos I enjoy and recommend to people frequently. I'm literally subscribed to her Patreon), and with GlitterGate and stupid shit happening on Twitter, I've wondered if it's worth it to keep writing and talking about Taylor Swift Fruity(TM). But I listen to Taylor's music constantly, and I can't stop hearing the queerness. I can't stop forming thoughts about the way she writes and the narrative of her last several albums.

tl;dr: Aside from incriminating photos, interview comments, and what we've been told about Taylor, her lyrics are full of queer themes and symbolism and history. I can't listen to Taylor Swift without hearing how sapphic her lyrics are, and I shouldn't have to.

#gaylor #gaylor swift #glittergate #kissgate #lyric analysis #there's more to gaylor than one can learn from a casual google search

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stargirlfics · 1 year

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I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately about being a black writer and the choice I made a few years ago to start writing for other black girls like myself, purposefully stating that my fics are written with a black reader or black OC or black latina reader because I had never seen that before in fanfic and wanted to make a space for us, and for myself too where that was possible.

I realized I could start writing the kinds of stories where someone with brown skin, dark skin and black features with hair like mine or my friend’s could be the main character, could be in love, and taken care and allowed to be sensitive and emotional and angry and at the center of the story for once!

At least to me, from where I was when I started posting my writing on here, I think it was just myself and a handful of other black writers that were really the first to start writing specifically for black readers, for a non white audience, because up until that point any character fic you searched for was mostly likely going to be white coded or have a white OC. I don’t think I ever really give myself much credit for it but I’m trying to get better at that so I’m going to take the space to say I’m really proud to be one of the first to do that in the fandoms I was in at that time.

Unfortunately a lot of those writers I was inspired by and was writing alongside have left or stopped writing or moved their writing elsewhere because as much as there was positive responses and people finding representation, there was also a lot of racism and harassment and just awful treatment thrown our way too.

Lately I’ve really stopped to think about how much harassment I myself experienced, how many times I had to turn my asks off from racist anons and hate I was getting, and how there was a point in time where it was frequent to see black writers or other writers of color on here dealing with racist comments.

So much of that was not okay at all, especially when I think about how nobody was really sticking up for us besides each other, it was hardly a peep from other white writers and I don’t think it was as called out as it should have been at the time which is why what my dear friend @obiknights says about that in their response here is what made me write this post because it was said so plainly and correctly! (That entire post including OP’s words is spot on and important to talk about btw so I encourage everyone to read it!!)

The writing spaces in fandom and just in general are not catered to anyone outside the white/cis box and I’m thankful it’s been a long time since I’ve had to deal with any harassment but I still see it happen and I still see how often we are ignored or given less recognition. I know that my writing receives less interaction and that less people give reading it a chance because it doesn’t cater to them as a white person and sometimes that still really frustrates me and makes me angry.

All this to say I think people, myself included need to be reminded that there’s still a lot of work to do and there’s always ways to support black writers, black queer writers and artists, human beings, on here who put so much of our love and time and energy into creating amazing stuff and we deserve to take up space too.

I’ll never stop writing about people who look like me, I love it too much, I love how rich our creativity is and frankly, out of pure spite for being told so many times my writing wasn’t realistic for having a black woman as the protagonist, I’m going to keep writing these stories forever! <3

#text #just had some things to say 💌#writing things #racism in fandom

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